Rama’s SCREEN

Ha! This is a pretty funny satire and the master of this genre, David Zucker gives his own way of making us feel patriotic..at the expense of Michael Moore, I wonder what Moore thinks of this flick. Now I gotta be honest, I think Michael Moore is a talented documentary filmmaker but… this movie is proof that freedom of speech goes both ways and if Moore dares to mock America’s health care system and patriot act, he should be ready to be mocked as well by Zucker and his gang. It’s strange to say this because after all, it’s just a comedy movie but somehow you’ll feel proud to be part of the greatest country in the world after watching AN AMERICAN CAROL

The story starts with a Fourth of July barbecue, where the kids implore “Grandpa” (Leslie Nielsen) to tell one of his “famous” stories. As he begins his Independence Day, “once upon a time” rip-off of the Charles Dickens classic tale, we are introduced to highly lionized but extremely frustrated “wannabe” feature film director Michael Malone (Kevin Farley).
Struggling to be taken seriously and unable to get financing for his feature debut, Fascist America, Malone is having a really bad day. His latest documentary, Die, You American Pigs!, has just bombed at the box office; worse yet, he’s also having trouble getting his latest cause célèbre to take flight: he wants to abolish the Fourth of July holiday in protest of the corrupt American war machine and it’s foreign policy.

I’ve always loved how Zucker uses exaggeration to make us laugh. A woman would say she’s into a man with uniforms and all of a sudden we see people with different kinds of uniforms waiting outside, standing in line, each to get his turn. Christ Farley’s brother, Kevin Farley plays the character named Michael Malone, and he looks just like Michael Moore, he’s fat too. Malone receives a small award and his opponent gets a similar but bigger award, the size of his arm. Zucker dogs on current political jargons and the war on terrror and I think the whole spoofing the story A Christmas Carol is brilliant.

Those of you who are far in the liberal left wing might find it hard to sit through this movie because it will attack every inch of ideology that you believe in. I’m not sure if it means to support war as much as it actually means to get people to support troops and the fight for liberty. I feel sorry for documentary filmmakers everywhere because this feature film will make them feel underappreciated and make them wanna reconsider their careers but that’s an essential part of this movie’s humor, which apparently happens very frequently.

We see Kelsey Grammar and Dennis Hopper in a movie together again since the recent yet another political satire that they were involved in called Swing Vote. What attracts them to this kind of gig? Your guess is as good as mine. But I’m betting all the guest star cameos in AN AMERICAN CAROL are probably in it for the chance to work with Zucker or they think the script is too damn funny to pass up.

I just wanna say that I watched this movie in a room full of people, I repeat, the room was jampacked, full of people. And I kid you not, throughout the whole thing, I heard rounds of appalause everytime somebody agrees with whatever is said by any of the characters. At the end of it, people were clapping, cheering and agreeing. I was surprised to see a spoof movie get such an exuberant response. I guess there are a lot of Michael Moore haters out there.

* Place the cursor on the image below to check my grade for this film